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Who is this guy?

Jason Freyer is a youth pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA. He enjoys his job so much that he has decided to spend countless hours of his free time writing about it in the new modern medium of weblog, or blog. That brings us here. Welcome to the blog of J, or in its condensed version, J-Blog. Jason writes this blog to be by youth pastors, for youth pastors, but watch with amazement as he dives into other topics as worship leading, preaching, politics, the Pittsburgh sports scene, or whatever else happens to be on his mind. Jason lives with his wife Sarah and their two dogs Marley and Melvin. This is some of the finest third person writing he's done in a while.

As I noticed earlier this morning, I have yet to officially review the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, and this is an absolute shame. Honestly, it's been one of my favorite books of the last year. I finished it a while ago, but I'm seriously considering going back in for a re-read. It's that good.

The book follows Don as he begins working on plans for a movie about his book Blue Like Jazz. (Side note: what could be my only real complaint about the book is that there's no mention of when said movie might come out. I'll be first in line I can assure you!) Some movie producers come to Don and being working on a screen adaptation of the book. Don starts noticing that the producers are saying the story of the book needs to be updated a little bit if people are going to spend money on it. In other words, it's not interesting enough. This would probably be all well and good except Blue Like Jazz is a memoir, so to say the story isn't interesting enough is to say that Donald Miller as a person isn't interesting enough.

And that's when things get interesting!

The book centers on Don editing his life, trying desperately to tell a better story. Through it all, Miller challenges us to live a better story. He questions us the whole way through the book, wondering if living the way we're living is good enough for us. Would anyone come to see the movie of our lives, or would it simply be too boring? And he does all this questioning not as a high and mightier than you author who has an idea about life, he does it at someone who has tried to live a better story, succeeded, and invites us all along on the journey.

This book has in recent months has changed my world in a variety of ways. The biggest (and most evidently successful) was our confirmation class this year. Rather than trying to just flat out teach them things, I did my best to invite them into the story of God. I'm trying to get on my bike a bit more and lose some weight. I'm trying to teach our youth group to tell a better story with their lives. The moral of the story is whether you find yourself working in a church situation or not, this book is incredibly relevant to all of us!